• PHOTO: The Telstra mobile tower at Misery Farm near Gulargambone has finally been upgraded. PHOTO: Leona Terry
MOBILE telephone and broadband services in the Gulargambone area have recently become a whole lot better, with the Telstra mobile tower at ‘Misery Farm’ just south of the township receiving a long-awaited and desperately needed upgrade.
The township was excluded from the NBN’s Fixed Wireless and Fibre to the Node service, so the majority of the population are reliant on the mobile tower for both their phone and internet services.
The tower had reached full capacity in recent years leaving users with third-rate coverage.
Community members who have been lodging complaints and campaigning for better service have welcomed the improvements.
The work started on 22 August took around ten days to complete.
Although service disruptions during this time were very inconvenient, especially when the town was without service during the Gold Cup Raceday, one of the busiest weekends of the year for Gulargambone, local residents say that they are pleased to have seen a dramatic change in connectivity.
“They’ve done the upgrade and we now have 5G,” said local farmer and former publican Ashleigh Walker.
“I drove past one day when it was pouring down rain and there were five or six vehicles, with blokes hanging from lines on the tower.”
“They were really committed to getting the work done.”
Despite being frustrated by the amount of time it took to have the tower upgraded, Mr Walker says that it should have enormous benefits for people’s personal and business lives.
“In general, we’ve become so reliant on being able to click and connect to conduct our everyday business that having good mobile broadband is critical.
“Even for primary producers, if you want to buy or sell stock online or you want to do a whole range of other tasks, you need to be able to send and receive data to conduct your business.”
Telstra’s Northern NSW Regional General Manager Michael Marom said that with usage increasing at a rate of about 50 per cent each year the 3G service provided by the old tower was no longer fit for purpose.
“When there’s an increase in traffic the signal shrinks,” Mr Marom said.
“We have always had Gulargambone as an area for upgrade to the full 4G spectrum.”
“It will certainly provide a much-improved service for the area.”
The latest work means that the tower is now equipped for providing both 3G and 4G spectrums, although the 3G will eventually be phased out.
“We used the best technology available and it takes the pressure of both 4G and the old 3G network which will be decommissioned in June 2024,” Mr Marom said.
“With this particular upgrade, the footprint will be the same if not greater because there’ll be less traffic on the tower on each spectrum.”
Mr Marom says that users in the area should check that their phone settings are switched to automatic to get the full benefit, rather than 3G or 4G only.
“With the modern developments now most phones have the capacity to go onto the best possible signal,” he said.
Although Telstra is already rolling out 5G across their network, the Gulargambone tower’s upgrade is not quite there yet.
“There is no timeframe for 5G but possibly within the next 12 months or so,” he said.
“The upgrade means the tower is prepared for 5G as well. It does mean different equipment but the tower is ready to accommodate that new hardware so it provides a bit of future-proofing as well,” he said.
“We’re very happy with the result and it was fully Telstra funded, there were no government funds in that upgrade.”